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DOI: https://doi.org/10.33258/birci.v5i1.4279 5715
The Implementation of Digital Marketing at Diniyyah Al-Azhar Islamic Boarding School Foundation, Jambi, Indonesia
Abdul Muhaimin Elyusufi1, Triyono Adi Tristanto2
1STKIP Al Azhar Diniyyah Jambi, Indonesia
2Institut Bisnis & Informatika Kosgoro 1957, Indonesia
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
I. Introduction
The development of a very dynamic world of education requires Digital Marketing (DM) in its operations. DM is marketing through digital technology or the internet. In other words, DM is marketing through online, virtual world or online marketing. Sathya (2017) says that digital marketing is the marketing of marketing products or services using digital technology that uses the internet, such as through the use of cellular phones, television advertisements and other online media. A similar opinion was also expressed by Stoke (2013) who said that digital marketing is an innovative new approach to consumers through the internet network.
The role of Digital Marketing is very significant in improving the quality and quantity of the business world or education business. The benefits obtained by using DM are numerous, for example: the reach of the target group, consumers or a wider target market share, promotional costs that are cheaper than using manual labor or human labor, simplifying the communication process with remote areas or inaccessible areas. by land, can establish
Abstract
Yayasan Pondok Pesantren Diniyyah (YPPD) Al-Azhar Jambi is an Islamic foundation that works in the field of education.
Foundation operates education as formal school with various educational levels starting from Kindergarten up to higher institution which specializes in Teacher Training and Education, and Religious College (Tarbiyah) and Sciences. School which is under management of YPPD Al-Azhar Jambi, is one of favorite quality schools in Jambi province. In order to keep up with the times and the dynamic development of world education, promotion and marketing of YPPD Al-Azhar Jambi is carried out by conventional and online marketing, namely Digital Marketing.
The presence of online technology such as Digital Marketing is indeed a significant contribution in the world of education. This research is about the implementation of Digital Marketing at YPPD Al-Azhar Jambi, Indonesia. The purpose of the study was to provide insightful contribution to YPPD Al-Azhar Jambi in order to grow and develop. The method used for this qualitative study is data analysis, observation and SWOT analysis. The results showed that the application of Digital Marketing at YPPD Al-Azhar Jambi had not been carried out optimally. YPPD Al- Azhar Jambi is suggested to manage and develop integrated marketing plans and strategies digitally.
Keywords
digital marketing; dynamics;
education; foundation; Jambi
Budapest International Research and Critics Institute-Journal (BIRCI-Journal) Volume 5, No 1, February 2022, Page: 5715-5722 e-ISSN: 2615-3076(Online), p-ISSN: 2615-1715(Print)
www.bircu-journal.com/index.php/birci email: [email protected]
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lasting communication via email, social media (sosmed) and others as well as measuring effectiveness and optimizing performance can also be done with digital marketing. The development of the digital world has changed the dynamics of business marketing and life in the world from all sides of life, regardless of the positive and negative effects of the digital presence. To address the challenges and harness the opportunities offered by digital technologies during this crisis, participants shared a concern to recognize and protect digital rights in particular around the areas of privacy and inclusion (Hariati, 2021). This can be interpreted as internet users in Indonesia belongs to the category of digital natives group (Gunawan, 2020). The use of digital technology worldwide is increasing, especially since the COVID- 19 pandemic in early 2020 (Yugo, 2021).
The era before digital marketing, business marketing was done non-digitally or conventionally. In other words, at this time, marketing is done manually or offline. The impacts of the non-technology era are numerous, namely 1) non-digital marketing costs a lot of money, for example: 1) costs for advertising in newspapers, radio, TV or using human- powered promotion services. All cost a lot of money. Marketing Promotion is still done face- to-face or face-to-face. 2) Communication becomes difficult due to limited reach to consumers, target groups and distant marketing locations. This of course also requires a large cost. For example, consumers or targets are outside the city or other areas and can even be outside the province. Manual marketing certainly requires a lot of money. 3) communication is not smooth and not fast. For example, sending brochures or information by mail, pamphlets, flyers and posters in the form of printing will take time in terms of not only the printing process, but also the delivery process. 4) marketing in the non-digital era is not optimal because it cannot know the target group clearly and cannot statistically know whether the brochure advertisement has been read or has reached the target group. Of course, there are still many obstacles and shortcomings from the non-digital era. 4) marketing in the non- digital era is not optimal because it cannot know the target group clearly and cannot statistically know whether the brochure advertisement has been read or has reached the target group. Of course, there are still many obstacles and shortcomings from the non-digital era. 4) marketing in the non-digital era is not optimal because it cannot know the target group clearly and cannot statistically know whether the brochure advertisement has been read or has reached the target group. Of course, there are still many obstacles and shortcomings from the non-digital era.
On the other hand, in the era of Digital Marketing (DM), there are many advantages that can be achieved by education business developers. For example: 1) digital marketing can reach the target group wherever they are via the internet network. 2) Communication can be done anytime quickly. 3) marketing activities can be measured with statistical data because of the existence of a digital application system that can calculate data accurately and in detail.
The same benefit was stated by Martin (2015) who said that the era of digital marketing has changed the world, and the higher education sector is no exception.
The Pondok Pesantren Diniyyah Al Azhar Jambi Foundation is a foundation that is engaged in education and is one of the favorite quality schools in the city of Jambi. The existence of this foundation in the city of Jambi is an expansion of the Diniyyah Al Azhar Muara Bungo Islamic Boarding School foundation, Jambi province. The level of education at this school starts from the Play group (TK) level, up to a college or bachelor's degree program. This foundation has been established since 44 years ago in Jambi Province (alazharjambi.com, 2021) and has won a myriad of awards at local, national and international levels.
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In following the dynamic development of the world of education, the Pondok Pesantren Diniyyah Al-Azhar Jambi Foundation applies offline and online school marketing strategies.
Offline marketing of the foundation includes: promotion of new student admissions through print media, promotions using brochures, banners, holding bazaars, seminars, competitions between schools and other religious events carried out either within the foundation or other areas. One of the foundation's offline marketing promotion programs is the scholarship acceptance program or the Selection of Cadre Leaders Scholarship (BKP) for the Diniyyah.
Al-Azhar Jambi Islamic Boarding School Foundation. BKP is a Foundation awareness program that aims to create a cadre of generations of leaders in schools, institutions, companies, campuses or in the community. In 2021, The BKP program is entering its 4th batch with a total of 46 students being cadre from various regions in Jambi Province and outside Jambi such as North Sumatra, South Sumatra and West Sumatra. Although the promotion of this program is carried out online, all processes for implementing the selection program are still carried out conventionally or offline, both from face-to-face filling out student forms, submitting files, taking Koranic tests, writing tests, interview processes and others.
In the majority, school promotion and marketing programs as well as educational development carried out by YPPD Al-Azhar Jambi are still carried out conventionally. Even so, on the other hand, the foundation has also implemented school marketing with Digital Marketing or digital marketing. Examples of foundation marketing that have been done digitally include: promotion of new student admissions posted via social media, coverage of ceremonial activities posted on social media (social media) such as Indonesian independence day, social programs conducted by foundations and birthdays foundation year. Based on these observations, digital marketing is still limited to coverage of large or ceremonial events.
Even though yThe Diniyyah Islamic Boarding School foundation has implemented digital marketing or digital marketing, its use has not been maximized. Based on this fact, this research formulates several points as research questions.
1.1 Research Questions:
1. What marketing processes have been carried out digitally at the Pondok Pesantren Diniyyah Al-Azhar Jambi Foundation?
2. How far is the optimization of the useDigital Marketingapplied inYayasan Pondok Pesantren Diniyyah Al-Azhar Jambi?
3. What are the policies and plans for digital education development adopted by the Pondok Pesantren Diniyyah Al-Azhar Jambi Foundation?
1.2 The Objectives Research:
1. To find out what marketing processes have been done digitally at the Pondok Pesantren Diniyyah Al-Azhar Jambi Foundation.
2. To find out show far is the optimization of usageDigital Marketingapplied inYayasan Pondok Pesantren Diniyyah Al-Azhar Jambi.
3. To find out the policies and plans for digital education development adopted by the Pondok Pesantren Diniyyah Al-Azhar Jambi Foundation.
II. Review of Literature
The rapid growth of the digital era in the last ten years has changed the development of the world in all aspects of life, including the world of education. These changes can be seen from human behavior, ways of interacting, habits, activities and others. This is similar to
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what Tiago and Verissimo (2014) stated that the way people interact has changed due to the presence of online social media, which has changed people's perspective and behavior.
The world of education is not spared from the changes in the development of the digital era. Like it or not, developers of the world of education must follow the trends and developments of the times. If not, then you have to be willing to experience backwardness which will certainly have an impact on the slow growth. Al Kailani and Kumar (2011) say that changes in people's perspectives and behavior due to the presence of the digital era, this requires education actors to develop new ways and strategies to market or promote their schools to prospective new students. Not only that, education business actors should also start thinking about adopting the digitalization process of education which of course makes all educational activities easier.
Competition between education developers in recruiting students in the digital era is also experiencing rapid changes and developments. Schools have their respective strategies in utilizing Digital Marketing (DM) technology. The digitization process is not only used to attract students, but comprehensively covers all fields of educational activities. Starting from the admission process, selection of quality students, good communication between prospective students and teachers, parents, active students and alumni can be done through digitalization that is packaged thoroughly. This is in line with what was conveyed by Spilker (2017) which emphasized the importance of DM to encourage the birth of new development strategies.
III. Research Methods
The method used in this study is a qualitative method, an in-depth study of the existence of digital marketing at the Pondok Pesantren Diniyyah Al-Azhar Jambi Foundation.
For this reason, observations (observations) on the conditions, situations, working methods and marketing of the Pondok Pesantren Diniyyah Al-Azhar Jambi Foundation are carried out comprehensively. Observations were carried out for three months including interviews with the foundation's marketing team in 2021. Interviews or interviews were carried out in the form of questions and answers regarding the application of the Digital Marketing system at the Foundation, including the description of the SWOT Analysis method (Humphrey, 1970).
IV. Discussion
The Digital Age has changed the way schools view, activities, management and strategies in promoting and operating their activities. The Al-Azhar Jambi Islamic Boarding School Foundation (YPPD) has an official website for the foundation, namely:alazharjambi.com (2021). In addition, YPPD Al-Azhar Jambi also has social media accounts; instagram @alazharjambi and Facebook, facebook.com/diniyyahalazhar/(2021).
Even so, the use of digital digital marketing has not been carried out optimally.
The existence of an official website, alazharjambi.com.(2021), is still a formality. In other words, the use of Digital Marketing (DM) has not been carried out optimally. This can be seen from the lack of up-to-date information about school activities, not yet maximally updated news about school developments or the world of education. In addition, there is no synergy of links to social media websites that can bridge information, communication or interaction between website operators and netizens (viewers) who visit the YPPD Al-Azhar website.
So are social media accounts; Instagram @alazharjambi, has not been operated optimally and professionally. In other words, although school marketing has been carried out through this account, the use of Digital Marketing has not been maximized. Information and
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news posted are ceremonial in nature only. Posting information, photos, videos or news coverage only contains events or events that are formal, ceremonial and big days. In addition, the vacancies of operators or admins who can facilitate communication or respond to communications from netizens are also visible. As a result, there is no visible interaction on this social media account. This shows that there is no optimal management of digital marketing management and strategies through social media accounts.
Similar to Instagram accounts, Facebook accounts: facebook.com/diniyyahalazhar/
(2021) also shows that management is not optimal. This can be seen from news posts, videos, photos which are just a formality. In addition, there is no operator that manages and responds to communications from website visitors or netizens.
Apart from Instagram and Facebook social media pages, there are no other social media pages owned by the foundation. Although the foundation has a Youtube account, this website also only contains videos or events that are formal and ceremonial. The vacancy of the agenda or schedule for making videos or uploading videos was also confirmed by the foundation's marketing team. In other words, there is no regular schedule, planning or specific time for creating or uploading videos.
Based on further observations and interviews with the YPPD Al-Azhar Jambi marketing team, they said that the foundation did not have specific policies and plans regarding the development of digital school marketing. In other words, there is no schedule, agenda, program prepared to do marketing. Even so, they said that the initiative of the marketing team and the operator in charge was highly expected to publish important events or events on the website. This of course must obtain approval from the leadership of the foundation before the information is published on the website. The marketing team further agrees that publication on the website is an important matter whose purpose is to raise the image of the school (foundation).
Digital Marketing SWOT Analysis at YPPD Al Azhar Jambi
Analysis SWOT is a form of analysis: 1. Strengths, 2. Weaknesses, 3. Opportunities and 4. Threats. The things that were analyzed were the application of Digital Marketing at the Pondok Pesantren Diniyyah Al-Azhar Jambi Foundation. Here are the results of the analysis, namely:
1. Strengths (S)
1. Marketing reach oonline(Digital Marketing)widercompared to conventional marketing (offline) because the target readers (viewers) can be anywhere in the world, throughout the world, not only limited to one area, local or national.
2. Online marketing is not limited in time. The target group or target readers/internet users can access/read information posted on the official website or social media at any time.
3. Readers or website visitors (viewers) can immediately find out about school developments or other important information related to schools, for example about new student admissions programs, school events and others.
2. Weaknesses (W)
1. There is no communication between the operator (admin) of the website and website visitors. In other words, there is no interactive communication network on the website.
2. The foundation's website and online social media are used only to promote and post formal and ceremonial news.
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3. The official website and the old social media of the foundation are not yet known to the wider public. In other words, not everyone (netizens) knows the YPPD Al-Azhar Jambi social media page.
4. Not everyone has internet access. In other words, online media (internet) users are still few let alone active users, so that only a few can be reached by YPPD Al Azhar Jambi.
5. Website and old social media have not been managed optimally and professionally.
This can be seen from the void of synergy/cooperation with developers or other business branding on the website, the absence of other website applications.
3. Opportunities (O)
1. Have a potential market for growth
2. Management of active and interactive communication between operators and website visitors (netizens). That is, communication can be well established between the foundation's website operator (admin) and readers (viewers) or website visitors if the digital communication system is managed properly, so that website readers can directly interact online, either with website operators or between website visitors.
3. The foundation's marketing team can arrange posting agendas periodically (periods) for the development of school reputation (brand awareness) or conduct market surveys, student surveys and others through official website data or social media.
4. There is a system of linkage (synergy) or collaboration between the foundation's official website and the foundation's social media network or other business actors' social mediamarketing/school development matters. For example: the existence of a tuition payment system that can be done online through internet banking on the foundation's website page, the promotion of textbooks on the foundation's social media pages where transaction payments can be made through an online payment system.
5. There are interesting applications on the foundation's website that can help students, parents and website visitors, for example; the existence of a Go-pay application network, Islamic internet banking applications, online shopping and others on the foundation's website.
6. People's need for internet (online information) is getting higher.
7. Consumer behavior and tastes are growing from the conventional era to the digital era.
4. Threats (T)
1. There are competitors or other school foundations that use similar online marketing strategies (Digital marketing).
2. There is no collaboration or synergy with other business actors on the Foundation's website.
3. The official website and social media pages are sabotaged/hijacked by hackers or are compromised.
4. Information on the Website and social media pages is not updated and is not managed properly.
5. One-way communication. There is no interactive communication between website administrators and social media pages and website visitors.
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V. Conclusion
Based on the official website and two social media accounts owned by YPPD Al-Azhar Jambi, it can be seen that:
1) The application of digital (online) marketing has not been carried out optimally. This can be seen from the absence of interactive communication between website operators and website visitors (netizens). In other words, the number of internet users (netizens) in the digital era has not been seen as an opportunity to promote, establish communication and others.
2) School promotion programs that are carried out digitally are still only a formality, depending on whether or not there are events that can be published. This shows that there is no schedule, marketing strategy and planning in online media. The existence of the website is only a formality. This can be seen from the vacancy of the news periodically. News is only posted when there are new things. As a result, online marketing (Digital Marketing) does not run optimally.
3) The website and the old social media of the foundation have not been managed optimally and professionally. This can be seen from the void of synergy and cooperation with other business actors, sponsors, donors or other educational foundations.
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